However, by giving no heed to what he said, we brought the Avenger into position; but I soon saw that the tide was setting us away from the Britisher, and suggested that we let go the anchor. To this the old man would not agree. "Obey orders if you break owners," he said with a grin, and I knew he had some reason for thus being so foolish. However, to make a long story short, we remained hove to until day dawned, and then we were within a cable's length of a large ship, while a mile or more further up the bay was the vessel that had first hailed. "Ahoy on the sloop!" came from the second ship, and Darius replied in the tone of a countryman: "Ay, ay, sir." "Why are you loafing around here?" "We came down to sell some oysters; but the chap on t'other craft told us to heave to, an' we've been driftin' 'round here ever since. I dunno whether we ought'er go back to him, or try to sell you what few bushels we've got." "When did you take them?" "Last night. Oh, they're fresh enough, if that's what you're thinkin' of. Don't you want to try 'em?" "What is the price?" "Ten cents a bushel; that's what we ought'er get up to Baltimore, an' I reckon we might knock off a little if we don't have to run there to unload." Then, without waiting for permission, Darius began giving us fool orders intended to get the pungy under way, and we came lumbering around under the ship's starboard, where we could have been blown into the next world with no more labor than the lighting of a match. Darius lifted one of the hatches and leaped into the hold ordering us to "bear a hand lively that the gentlemen might taste the oysters," and passing up a basket full, shouting to me so loudly that he could readily have been heard on the ship: "Pass 'em over the side, Bubby dear, an' be careful how you fool 'round the rail!" I should have laughed at his manner of speaking but that I knew he was playing a part, and I did my best to obey the command. The sailors of the ship, eager for anything by way of a change of food, held out both hands invitingly for the fish, and I contrived to swing the basket aboard. Then it was that I saw an officer take charge of the fish, calling for the after steward to come forward, and a moment later some one cried: "Where's your captain?" I sung out for Darius; but he pretended to misunderstand, and replied: "They can have the lot for eight cents a bushel. Ask 'em if I shall begin takin' 'em out?" Then it was that I fancied he had some good reason for wanting to remain out of sight, and I looked around in alarm to see what had caused the trouble. CHAPTER VII. AN OLD ACQUAINTANCE. Jerry was at the tiller; Jim Freeman and his friends stood near me at the main-hatch ready to obey the commands of Darius, and since all hands of us, with the exception of Josiah Coburn, really were oystermen, knowing no other business or trade, there was little reason for the Britishers to have any suspicions regarding us.